Rockmelon Ice Cream

One of the greatest things I ate when I was in Japan last month wasn’t sushi, katsu, or udon, it was a simple ice cream cone from a convenience store.

CTO, Miss G, and myself visited the Bengal Cat Forest when we were in Kyoto (the bengals were adorable and so cuddly, one slept on my lap for 30min!). If you’re a cat lover, it’s worth a look-see. After we left the Forest, Miss G was hungry, so all of us plus my sister-in-law Ms H went to find her some grub. I took her into the nearest convenience store to choose an ice cream, and to no surprise, she chose the biggest Cornetto-style ice cream in the cabinet. It was a chocolate cone filled with rockmelon ice cream, topped with chocolate and rockmelon crunchies. I was allowed 1 lick, and I was hooked. It tasted exactly like a ripe rockmelon, not that artificial candy taste. I went out that evening and bought myself one. It was creamy, melon-y, and sooooo good!

When I got home, I started thinking up ways to make my own version of the ice cream, so I trawled the internet looking for a recipe. I found some, but not what I wanted. A lot of recipes call for cooking the rockmelon with sugar before cooling and adding to a cream base. I didn’t want to make it too sweet as I wanted the ripe melon to be the main sweetener, and of course I wanted it to be quick and easy. So I adapted my ‘Hawthorn’ Chocolate Honeycomb Ice Cream recipe to suit.

This recipe is easy. It has 5 ingredients, and except for the melon, all are pantry/fridge staples. You do need some gadgetry though; a food processor or large volume blender, and a set of electric beaters. And of course, something to pour it into.

Now, unlike the aforementioned honeycomb ice cream, this is a firm-ish ice cream. It looks so pretty with its creamy apricot-orange colour and little flecks of melon through it. It’s also crunchier like a sorbet or granita, because of the sheer amount of juicy melon that’s inside it. And a little note; mine did separate a little bit at the bottom, but that’s just because I didn’t stir it in the middle of the freeze time and just chucked it in the freezer. It doesn’t worry me, but if you don’t want 1-2 centimetres of icy pole on the bottom of your tub, give it a stir 2-3 hrs into the freezing cycle.

It’s always ice cream season in Singapore because of the heat/humidity, but this is a fantastic summertime treat when the melons are ripe and in season. And it’s full of vitamins and other healthy stuff, so you could even eat it for brekkie!

Rockmelon Ice Cream

Time: 10 min preparation plus freezing time

Yield: 1.9-2 Lt

700g ripe rockmelon flesh (weight after peeling and chopping)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 cup milk

395g/400g tin of sweetened condensed milk

2 cups/500ml thickened cream

Puree rockmelon with vanilla essence and milk in a food processor or blender until smooth/finely chopped. Add condensed milk and blend until combined. Chill mixture.

Whip cream with electric beaters on high speed until it forms firm peaks. Pour your rockmelon mixture slowly into the cream and fold with the beaters on low speed or a spatula until it is combined.

Pour into containers, and freeze until set.

Notes: You can stir the ice cream 2-3hrs into the freezing time to fix the small bit of juice separation, but it’s not required.